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ORNGE criminal probe is mired in red tape

Legal red tape, federal style, is preventing a trip to Italy to probe allegations related to the purchase of helicopters for the Ontario agency.

“Our officers have not gone to Italy yet,” OPP spokesman Sgt. Pierre Chamberland said this week. “They are still working through the process with the mutual legal assistance treaty.”

Translation? It could still be many months before detectives book their flights to continue a probe that began two-and-a-half years ago. With the help of the provincial attorney general’s ministry, the OPP is applying through the federal government to arrange with Italian authorities to send Ontario detectives to conduct interviews and obtain documents from government and companies in Italy.

ORNGE is Ontario’s provincially funded air ambulance agency. It receives about $150 million a year to transport patients using both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

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After a series of Toronto Star stories, the OPP was asked by the province in February 2012 to investigate allegations connected to ORNGE founder and former president Dr. Chris Mazza and his connections with suppliers, including the Italian firm where ORNGE purchased 12 state-of-the-art helicopters.

A Star investigation showed that after the purchase by ORNGE, a private, Mazza-controlled firm received $4.7 million and the promise of $2 million more from the Italian helicopter firm AgustaWestland. The Italian firm has said it did nothing wrong and is in court trying to retrieve some of that $4.7- million payment. After the stories, Mazza and many top officials at ORNGE lost their jobs. The board of directors was replaced and ORNGE has worked hard to improve both its governance and service to patients.

Now, two and a half years after the criminal investigation began, the OPP has yet to visit Italy.

The police spokesman explained that the delay is caused by the often complicated legal treaty system countries have that allow law enforcement from one country to conduct investigations on foreign soil. A “mutual legal assistance treaty” has existed between Canada and Italy since the early 1990s. The OPP has had to request assistance from provincial lawyers who, in turn, have made the request to the federal Justice Department. Now, Canadian federal lawyers are in discussions with their counterparts in Italy.

AgustaWestland and parent company Finmeccanica are headquartered in Italy. Mazza travelled there to meet with top helicopter company officials during the negotiations to purchase the 12 choppers at a cost of $144 million. The Star has reported earlier that Mazza wined and dined with top AgustaWestland officials and stayed in the finest accommodations on trips to Italy. Mazza has told the Star and a Queen’s Park committee that he had the best interests of Ontario and ORNGE at heart and that he has done nothing wrong.

When the OPP started its probe in early 2012, detectives conducted interviews in Canada. In mid-2013, the OPP began the process to get treaty permission to gather evidence in Italy. Former OPP commissioner Chris Lewis told a Queen’s Park committee last March that detectives were making plans to go, but months later the request remains mired in legal red tape.

The Star contacted the federal Justice Department last week to see what progress has been made.

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Though the OPP has been open about its request, the Justice Department said it could not talk about the request or even in general terms about the process.

“Mutual Legal Assistance requests to/from Canada are confidential state-to-state communications. As such, we are not in a position to confirm or deny a request was made in this or any other matter,” said Justice Department spokesperson Carole Saindon.

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